Jonathan Ochshorn
@jonochshorn.com
Architect, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Architecture, Cornell University
Marxist, singer-songwriter, author of: Building Bad, OMA's Milstein Hall. Structural Elements for Architects and Builders (all open-access and free at https://jonochshorn.com)
Marxist, singer-songwriter, author of: Building Bad, OMA's Milstein Hall. Structural Elements for Architects and Builders (all open-access and free at https://jonochshorn.com)
Not crazy about BYD's logo, screen-captured from www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/b...: Really confusing as the steering wheel turns, or in a rear-view mirror (where it reads as CYE).
December 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Not crazy about BYD's logo, screen-captured from www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/b...: Really confusing as the steering wheel turns, or in a rear-view mirror (where it reads as CYE).
I'm performing at the Cortland Coffeehouse Plus, 3 Church St., Cortland, NY, on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, 7–9 PM (doors open at 6:30 PM).
Song list includes live "unplugged" versions of Ode to Fluff, OMA's Milstein Hall, and more. Listen to studio versions at jonochshorn.com/music/
Song list includes live "unplugged" versions of Ode to Fluff, OMA's Milstein Hall, and more. Listen to studio versions at jonochshorn.com/music/
November 30, 2025 at 3:45 AM
I'm performing at the Cortland Coffeehouse Plus, 3 Church St., Cortland, NY, on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, 7–9 PM (doors open at 6:30 PM).
Song list includes live "unplugged" versions of Ode to Fluff, OMA's Milstein Hall, and more. Listen to studio versions at jonochshorn.com/music/
Song list includes live "unplugged" versions of Ode to Fluff, OMA's Milstein Hall, and more. Listen to studio versions at jonochshorn.com/music/
Rereading Banham's Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment (1969), seems like Wright's Larkin Building, which Banham discusses, shares some formal qualities with @fosterandpartners.bsky.social Hongkong Shanghai Bank, including articulation of exterior mechanical and stairs, central open space.
October 30, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Rereading Banham's Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment (1969), seems like Wright's Larkin Building, which Banham discusses, shares some formal qualities with @fosterandpartners.bsky.social Hongkong Shanghai Bank, including articulation of exterior mechanical and stairs, central open space.
Construction trash from McGraw Tower renovation at @cornelluniversity.bsky.social. On the one hand, I'm impressed that someone on the jobsite makes use of their knowledge of trigonometry; on the other hand, I'm wondering why such ad hoc on-site calculations are required in the first place.
August 1, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Construction trash from McGraw Tower renovation at @cornelluniversity.bsky.social. On the one hand, I'm impressed that someone on the jobsite makes use of their knowledge of trigonometry; on the other hand, I'm wondering why such ad hoc on-site calculations are required in the first place.
From OMA's Milstein Hall: "...there is also an implicit conflation of a type of performative athletic movement—whether featuring trained dancers, "free runners," or skateboarders—with the type of movement in and around buildings that constitutes useful circulation."
jonochshorn.com/milsteinhall...
jonochshorn.com/milsteinhall...
July 6, 2025 at 3:27 PM
From OMA's Milstein Hall: "...there is also an implicit conflation of a type of performative athletic movement—whether featuring trained dancers, "free runners," or skateboarders—with the type of movement in and around buildings that constitutes useful circulation."
jonochshorn.com/milsteinhall...
jonochshorn.com/milsteinhall...
File under: don't quit your day job...
July 1, 2025 at 8:21 PM
File under: don't quit your day job...
I talk about wayfinding in OMA's Milstein Hall in my open-access book of the same name. Here's a video update showing the continuing deterioration of floor-mounted signage for the auditorium (see ch. 6 www.jonochshorn.com/milsteinhall... in the book).
June 12, 2025 at 6:33 PM
I talk about wayfinding in OMA's Milstein Hall in my open-access book of the same name. Here's a video update showing the continuing deterioration of floor-mounted signage for the auditorium (see ch. 6 www.jonochshorn.com/milsteinhall... in the book).
Three reasons to wear a mask today in Ithaca, NY, not even including COVID:
1. Bad day for pollen
2. Dust kicked up by trucks that are entering and leaving construction site
3. Canadian wildfire smoke
1. Bad day for pollen
2. Dust kicked up by trucks that are entering and leaving construction site
3. Canadian wildfire smoke
June 5, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Three reasons to wear a mask today in Ithaca, NY, not even including COVID:
1. Bad day for pollen
2. Dust kicked up by trucks that are entering and leaving construction site
3. Canadian wildfire smoke
1. Bad day for pollen
2. Dust kicked up by trucks that are entering and leaving construction site
3. Canadian wildfire smoke
I played two singer-songwriter sets at the Coffeehouse Plus in Cortland's historic Universalist Unitarian Church last Saturday, May 31, 2025 — the first set with guitar, the second with digital piano. These are unedited iPhone videos of 2 songs (with iPhone audio).
jon.ochshorn.org/2025/06/live...
jon.ochshorn.org/2025/06/live...
June 3, 2025 at 9:01 PM
I played two singer-songwriter sets at the Coffeehouse Plus in Cortland's historic Universalist Unitarian Church last Saturday, May 31, 2025 — the first set with guitar, the second with digital piano. These are unedited iPhone videos of 2 songs (with iPhone audio).
jon.ochshorn.org/2025/06/live...
jon.ochshorn.org/2025/06/live...
I'll be doing a benefit concert of original songs (first set with guitar, second set with piano) at the Coffeehouse+, Unitarian Universalist Church of Cortland, NY, Sat., May 31, 2025, 7–9 PM.
More details: jonochshorn.com/music/music-...
More details: jonochshorn.com/music/music-...
May 15, 2025 at 7:29 PM
I'll be doing a benefit concert of original songs (first set with guitar, second set with piano) at the Coffeehouse+, Unitarian Universalist Church of Cortland, NY, Sat., May 31, 2025, 7–9 PM.
More details: jonochshorn.com/music/music-...
More details: jonochshorn.com/music/music-...
When I designed and built an addition to my house, I took some pleasure in not only matching but also in lining up the red oak floor boards across the threshold between old and new.
April 18, 2025 at 5:33 PM
When I designed and built an addition to my house, I took some pleasure in not only matching but also in lining up the red oak floor boards across the threshold between old and new.
From my photo archives, age 11: Freewheeling Bob Dylan for Christmas in 1963: supplemented by Google search and Photoshop's transform-distort mode.
April 7, 2025 at 2:55 PM
From my photo archives, age 11: Freewheeling Bob Dylan for Christmas in 1963: supplemented by Google search and Photoshop's transform-distort mode.
I posted two songs performed live at the Cortland Coffeehouse Plus on Feb. 22, 2025. These are piano-based, rather than guitar-based, and the audio is taken directly from the iPhone video clips, for better or worse: jon.ochshorn.org/2025/02/more...
February 26, 2025 at 4:25 PM
I posted two songs performed live at the Cortland Coffeehouse Plus on Feb. 22, 2025. These are piano-based, rather than guitar-based, and the audio is taken directly from the iPhone video clips, for better or worse: jon.ochshorn.org/2025/02/more...
I'm taking off my architect hat and putting on my singer-songwriter hat for a benefit concert this Saturday in Cortland, NY. All piano this time — no guitar. Details at jonochshorn.com/music/perfor...
February 17, 2025 at 10:20 PM
I'm taking off my architect hat and putting on my singer-songwriter hat for a benefit concert this Saturday in Cortland, NY. All piano this time — no guitar. Details at jonochshorn.com/music/perfor...
Real estate people have been known to use wide-angle lenses to inflate the apparent size of homes or to create plans that exaggerate the dimensions of certain rooms (always with a small-print disclaimer), but turning Ithaca's 6-mile creek into a full-blown river? Wow!
ithacavoice.org/2025/01/indu...
ithacavoice.org/2025/01/indu...
February 14, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Real estate people have been known to use wide-angle lenses to inflate the apparent size of homes or to create plans that exaggerate the dimensions of certain rooms (always with a small-print disclaimer), but turning Ithaca's 6-mile creek into a full-blown river? Wow!
ithacavoice.org/2025/01/indu...
ithacavoice.org/2025/01/indu...
This is a live version of my song, Ran Through My Mind, recently performed at the Cortland Coffeehouse Plus as an unplanned and unexpected guest of Colleen Kattau (singer-songwriter of Latin-influenced progressive eclectic folk).
youtu.be/FP__-Y-ovng
youtu.be/FP__-Y-ovng
February 4, 2025 at 11:05 PM
This is a live version of my song, Ran Through My Mind, recently performed at the Cortland Coffeehouse Plus as an unplanned and unexpected guest of Colleen Kattau (singer-songwriter of Latin-influenced progressive eclectic folk).
youtu.be/FP__-Y-ovng
youtu.be/FP__-Y-ovng
Richard Meier's Weill Hall bathroom at Cornell "reveals" an attention to detail and modularity that is almost pathological: follow the continuous reveal above wall tile, and note the way that toilet partitions line up precisely at tile joints. And this is just the bathroom...
January 28, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Richard Meier's Weill Hall bathroom at Cornell "reveals" an attention to detail and modularity that is almost pathological: follow the continuous reveal above wall tile, and note the way that toilet partitions line up precisely at tile joints. And this is just the bathroom...
Passed a Tesla Cybertruck parked on College Avenue with Texas plates on my morning walk today.
Did not explode.
Did not explode.
January 8, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Passed a Tesla Cybertruck parked on College Avenue with Texas plates on my morning walk today.
Did not explode.
Did not explode.
Karl Marx writing about the NFL, with apologies to Matthew Walther, editor of The Lamp (thelampmagazine.com), who actually wrote the article in today's NY Times—the text has not been changed; only the author.
January 4, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Karl Marx writing about the NFL, with apologies to Matthew Walther, editor of The Lamp (thelampmagazine.com), who actually wrote the article in today's NY Times—the text has not been changed; only the author.
“The idea that formal architectural qualities reflect the complexity of contemporary life is not merely flawed, but is a transparent ideological construct…to support the various…modes of expression that characterize avant-garde production.” Download my paper here: www.agathon.it/agathon/arti...
January 1, 2025 at 12:05 AM
“The idea that formal architectural qualities reflect the complexity of contemporary life is not merely flawed, but is a transparent ideological construct…to support the various…modes of expression that characterize avant-garde production.” Download my paper here: www.agathon.it/agathon/arti...
Concrete structure in India with formwork supported by wooden sticks has some resemblance to Corbusier’s Dom-Ino project. Captain Konkan dispenses with Corb's conceptual niceties in the interest of pure expediency! And yet, the final product still has some residual Modernist tendencies.
December 31, 2024 at 5:32 PM
Concrete structure in India with formwork supported by wooden sticks has some resemblance to Corbusier’s Dom-Ino project. Captain Konkan dispenses with Corb's conceptual niceties in the interest of pure expediency! And yet, the final product still has some residual Modernist tendencies.
I've just passed my exams to become a Certified Passive House Consultant, a designation awarded by Phius (Passive House Institute US). For architects troubled by the LEED hoax, the rigorous attention paid to air-tightness, super-insulation, and good air quality is a useful antidote.
December 4, 2024 at 8:26 PM
I've just passed my exams to become a Certified Passive House Consultant, a designation awarded by Phius (Passive House Institute US). For architects troubled by the LEED hoax, the rigorous attention paid to air-tightness, super-insulation, and good air quality is a useful antidote.
Great holiday T-shirts for your left-leaning architecture/culture fans: Material Girl—Material Guy; Building Bad; OMA's Milstein Hall; Great Moments in the History of Rhetoric jonochshorn-merch.printify.me/products
Low-cost paperback versions of my free open-access books jonochshorn.com/index.html
Low-cost paperback versions of my free open-access books jonochshorn.com/index.html
November 27, 2024 at 3:42 PM
Great holiday T-shirts for your left-leaning architecture/culture fans: Material Girl—Material Guy; Building Bad; OMA's Milstein Hall; Great Moments in the History of Rhetoric jonochshorn-merch.printify.me/products
Low-cost paperback versions of my free open-access books jonochshorn.com/index.html
Low-cost paperback versions of my free open-access books jonochshorn.com/index.html
Collaged image of the day: assembled from two photos taken at Lake View Cemetery in Ithaca, NY.
November 21, 2024 at 2:32 PM
Collaged image of the day: assembled from two photos taken at Lake View Cemetery in Ithaca, NY.
Stumbled upon something on Cornell's Arts Quad that might count as an art installation, or was it just an accident — a window left open with a projector running?
November 19, 2024 at 7:53 PM
Stumbled upon something on Cornell's Arts Quad that might count as an art installation, or was it just an accident — a window left open with a projector running?